Hargreaves is following Borthwick’s lead at Saracens to perfection

Head boy: Llock Alistair Hargreaves has made a stellar start to life as Sarries captain

Alistair Hargreaves is making one of the toughest assignments in European rugby look easy.

The South African lock was asked to fill the void created by the retirement of Steve Borthwick, who led Saracens to Premiership glory in 2011 and was one of English rugby’s line-out greats.

Rather than being cowed by the pressure of the Sarries captaincy, Hargreaves has quickly stamped his quiet authority on the squad and after an opening day win over Wasps came Friday’s 39-0 thumping of Harlequins.

Over successive weekends last season, Sarries lost the Premiership Final in the final seconds of extra time to Northampton and the Heineken Cup Final to Toulon but the league leaders go into Saturday’s match at London Irish full of confidence.

So, was Hargreaves concerned about filling Borthwick’s boots? “It is a big void to fill but I love being part of Saracens and it is a huge season for this club,” he said. “The pre-season allowed me to get my teeth into the job and it’s important to understand that players come and go at the club but nothing changes. The way we do things stays the same.

“Mark [McCall, Sarries director of rugby] and I had some discussion towards the end of last season and while I had done a lot of captaincy at junior level in South Africa I didn’t have much experience at senior level. That is why for me, the job is about staying on the same path that we have been following under Steve. It’s about consistency and with the calibre of players I have it means there is a really good leadership group at the club. Their support is vital.”

The victory over Quins - which could have been even more emphatic but for two try-saving tackles by Mike Brown - sent a message to the rest of the Premiership and even Hargreaves acknowledges his men achieved something special at the Twickenham Stoop.

“I can’t think of many games I’ve left the field in a Sarries jersey with such an exceptional feeling,” said Hargreaves. “We’re proud of the effort and the work - it was a great day at the office.”

The 28-year-old then slipped into the kind of analysis Borthwick would have embraced, adding: “The performance made it more obvious how poor we were against Wasps in the first game. The energy was phenomenal. We lost guys to the bin and we still kept working really hard for each other. We always strive to improve and keep raising the standards and so we will look to keep on developing as a team going into a tough away trip against London Irish.”

The two early season wins show Sarries are not carrying any baggage from their failure to mark Borthwick’s departure with a trophy and Hargreaves insists his men are ready to bid for Europe’s top trophies again.

He added: “The defeats in the finals were hard to take. They were traumatic experiences, particularly in the Premiership Final. But we’ve started another gruelling 10 months and it’s about taking on those challenges again. I know it sounds like a cliche but we focus on the process rather than the silverware and if we do play well week in, week out then the silverware will come.”